Lab 3: AC Low­pass filters (version 1.

3)

WARNING: Use electrical test equipment with care! Always double-check connections before
applying power. Look for short circuits, which can quickly destroy expensive equipment.

Partial list of equipment needed:

Digital oscilloscope
Function generator
ELVIS board
Scope probes
Resistors: 200 Ω and 1 kΩ (not critical)
Capacitor: 100 nF (not critical, substitute as needed)
Inductor: 3.9 mH (not critical, substitute as needed)

Introduction to the Elvis board

The National Instruments Elvis board is a powerful platform for circuit development.
One of its many functions is measurement of complex impedance, including the pure
reactance of capacitors and inductors. Acquire a capacitor with a value around 100 nF
and an inductor in the range of 3—5 mH. Turn on the main Elvis board power with the
switch located behind it. Turn on the 2nd power switch at upper right. Insert the desired
component (capacitor or inductor) in the DMM/Impedance analyzer using pins OUT+ and
OUT−. Start the NI ELVISmx Instrument Launcher program on the adjacent PC (found
under the National Instruments menu). Select the DMM; an I/O device should be
identified (this can take several seconds). Select the appropriate circuit diagram element
for capacitor or inductor and push the run button to measure the capacitance or
inductance. Record both values. Resistors are measured with the V­Ω and COM
connections located on the far left side of the Elvis board.

Frequency response and complex impedance

The following measurements will explore the frequency response of an R­C and L­R
circuit. They will show the frequency­dependent behavior of a circuit element (capacitor
or inductor) and the importance of phase­shift on AC signals. This behavior can be
conveniently modeled using complex impedance. For example, assuming a steady­state
periodic input such as a sinusoidal wave Vosin(wt), the impedance of a capacitor (C) in the
same circuit can be written: ZC = 1/jwC, where j = √­1. You will be building a voltage
divider network as in the previous experiments, but one of the resistors is replaced by a
capacitor or inductor.

First, test your scope probes on CH 1 and CH 2 to make sure they are operating properly.
Consult the previous lab instructions if needed. Setup the function generator to produce
a 1 Volt p­p sine wave at 1 kHz.

Note 1: The oscilloscope amplitude may differ from the function generator setting by a
factor of 2. This is because the output impedance of the function generator is set to 50 Ω.
Change it to high impedance (High Z) using the Utility menu.

Using the same guidelines as in the previous experiments, build the following circuit on
the breadboard using the resistor and capacitor measured above (nominally R = 200 Ω
and C = 0.1 µF):

Vin is supplied by the function generator and Vout is the voltage across the capacitor.
Measure Vin on CH 1 of the scope. You can use a scope probe connected to R; clip the
reference lead to ground. The less cluttered option is to use a BNC T­connector to route
the function generator signal directly to the CH 1 input (i.e. scope probe not needed) and
to the circuit with a BNC/EZ­hook cable. Connect a scope probe to CH 2 and clip it across
C to measure Vout.

Measurement of the signal waveforms

Measure the amplitude and phase of Vout relative to the Vin as a function of frequency.
The amplitude response is simply the ratio of peak­to­peak voltage for the two channels.
A frequency range between 1 and 30 kHz should provide enough data to map out the
response, depending on the choice of R and C. The absolute frequency start and end
points are not critical; take enough data (8­­10 points is adequate, more is better) to show
the drop off in signal with increasing frequency. Increase the frequency high enough to
make Vout/Vin less than 0.1.

The frequency dependent voltage amplitude change at Vout is a straightforward

measurement, but determining the voltage phase difference is more challenging. You are
displaying two waveforms and can use the adjustable cursors to measure the time delay
between key points. This time delay can be directly converted to a phase difference
because the period of the waveforms is known. In addition, many modern digital scopes
can measure the phase difference directly, displaying the result in degrees of phase. This
can be accessed in the measurement menu. If your scope has this capability, perform
both measurements and confirm they agree.
Note 2: When measuring phase, it is critical to keep track of what is being measured
relative to what. For example, the phase difference ∆φ = −45o could be interpreted as ∆φ =
+315o depending on the perspective. Just as with voltage, phase is always a relative
measurement. It has a point of reference and it must be correctly accounted for in your
analysis.

Note 3: The R­C circuit is one of the most important concepts in electronic
instrumentation. An experimentalist must be constantly aware of it because there is
always stray capacitance present, i.e. unintentional capacitance that can affect the
integrity of a measurement. The cutoff frequency of an R­C circuit is defined as fc = wc/2π
= 1/2πRC. The circuit shown above is a low­pass filter because the output signal is
reduced as the frequency increases in the neighborhood of fc. If the resistor and capacitor
are exchanged, the circuit becomes a high­pass filter.

If you look at the input connection of any oscilloscope, the input impedance associated
with it will be labeled. A typical scope may have a 1 MΩ input resistance in parallel with
20 pF of stray (unintentional but unavoidable) capacitance. This means the scope may
act as a low­pass filter with a cutoff frequency of around 8 kHz. The cutoff can be
increased to nearly 160 MHz by using a 50 Ω BNC terminator, which will be in parallel
with the internal 1 MΩ resistance. This value is chosen because it is comparable with the
characteristic impedance of coaxial cable. When a 50 Ω terminator is used, however, the
measured voltage levels will drop accordingly.

Low­pass filter with inductor

The low­pass filter can also be implemented with an inductor and resistor arranged as
follows:

Build this circuit with the second resistor having a value of around 1000 Ω and the
inductor measured previously (in the range 3—5 mH) to produce a cutoff frequency near
40 kHz (not critical) according to the formula fc = wc/2π = R/2πL. Perform the same set of
measurements as with the R­C filter, but adjust your data range to account for the higher
cutoff frequency. The goal is to show the frequency response rolloff with data points
above and below the cutoff frequency. Get data for both amplitude and phase.

Note 4: The L­R circuit is rarely a concern in electronic design except at radio frequencies
(rf) and higher. This is because stray inductance is usually negligible. If the inductor and
resistor are exchanged, the circuit becomes a high­pass filter.

Analysis and writeup

The voltage measured at the output of the R­C circuit is given by:

and for the L­R circuit:

To model the experimental response, you will need to put the right­hand side of the above
equations in the form a + jb, where a and b are the real and imaginary parts of the
complex number. The frequency­dependent amplitude response is then:

and the phase response is:

Don't forget that the function generator frequency display (Hz) is related to the angular
frequency (radians/sec) by the following equation: f = ω / 2π.

The lab writeup requires the following:

1) Plot Vout/Vin for the R­C circuit. Because this is a complex response, you will need to
plot the amplitude and phase data on separate graphs. The amplitude response is a
voltage ratio and is dimensionless on the y­axis. Display the phase data in degrees (not
radians). The x­axis of both plots should be frequency (f) in units of Hz or kHz.

2) Repeat the analysis described in 1) for the R­L circuit.

3) The four data sets generated in 1) and 2) have corresponding theoretical curves. These
continuous curves are obtained with the equations described above and using your
measured values for R, L, and C. Add the theory curves to the four plots from 1) and 2)
(i.e. you should produce two amplitude curves and two phase curves). List the measured
component values. Include your equation formulas on each plot.

There is no additional writing or explanation required. Your assignment is to generate

four graphs (2 amplitude graphs, 2 phase graphs with your data compared to theory)
corresponding to the two circuits. The report is due before the next class. E­mail your 4
graphs as a single electronic file (.pdf preferred) to the instructor.